Victoire Weasley and the Chamber of Secrets
by The Peverells
Summary: The Chamber of Secrets is Victoire Weasley's favorite place in the world.


**Author's Note:** Not quite canon, because it's implied that Teddy is in Gryffindor.

* * *

Every one of the "Weasley kids" had a favorite story about their parents' school years. Lily liked the robbery of Gringotts, especially the escape on a dragon. Lucy liked the story of Uncle Fred and Uncle George leaving Hogwarts with fireworks, cheers, and a swamp. Louis liked hearing how Aunt Hermione captured Rita Skeeter in a glass jar and blackmailed her.

Victoire and Teddy had the same favorite story – Tom Riddle in the Chamber of Secrets. Victoire was pretty sure Teddy liked it because it was a typical Gryffindory story: the hero rescues his one true love – _and_ there was a sword and a giant snake and a moment when all hope seemed lost. It was Teddy's favorite type of story.

Victoire just liked it because _giant secret chamber under the school_. How cool was that?!

Seriously, how could Uncle Harry _not_ have gone back to explore? _Nobody_ had gone back except Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione, and that was only because they _had_ to.

How was she even _related_ to these people? There was a _giant secret chamber under the school_ and nobody thought it was cool!

Luckily for Victoire's sanity, once she got to Hogwarts, she found others who thought a giant secret chamber under the school was awesome.

Victoire had met Ethel Jordan and Esther Longbottom before, at giant parties that her family threw occasionally. Their parents had been friends with some of her uncles, and Victoire, Ethel, and Esther were about the same age. So they had met, but they hadn't really gotten to know each other that well.

That changed when they got to Hogwarts. They were sorted together into Gryffindor, and so they naturally gravitated to each other, since they were already acquainted.

Victoire honestly would rather have just hung out with Teddy, but he had his own, _third-year_ , friends, and didn't want to have a little _first-year_ tagging along all the time.

So Victoire, Ethel, and Esther became friends for no reason other than that it was convenient. Of course, they got along with each other, and there wasn't anyone _else_ in their year that Victoire would rather be friends with, but Victoire honestly wouldn't have minded never talking to them again if it weren't for an incident at the end of October.

Victoire had decided before she even went to Hogwarts that she was going to explore the Chamber of Secrets, so she had convinced Uncle Ron to teach her all the Parseltongue he knew – which wasn't much, but would be enough to get her into the Chamber of Secrets.

She waited two months after she started her first year at Hogwarts – first because Hogwarts was a confusing mess of hallways and stairways that weren't always in the same places, and it took her a while before she could find her way around; and also because she wanted the distraction of the Halloween Feast to hide her absence.

Originally, she was planning on bringing Teddy with her, but she was still upset with him about wanting to hang out with his other friends instead of with her. She didn't need him anyway. She could explore the Chamber all by herself.

But it wasn't as easy to ditch Ethel and Esther as Victoire had expected. Eventually, Victoire had decided to tell them what she was up to, just to get them to leave her alone.

But it didn't work like that. Turns out Ethel and Esther both thought a giant secret chamber under the school was cool. And they wanted to explore it, too.

Victoire had stared at them, mouth dropped open in shock – _finally_ she had found someone who _got_ _it_! _Finally_ someone else who thought there was something interesting about there being a _giant secret chamber under the school_!

Victoire had decided in that moment: _forget_ Teddy – _these_ two were her best friends.

They headed to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, and Victoire found the sink with the snake etched on it, while Ethel and Esther held off Moaning Myrtle, who had decided she hated Victoire.

It took a few tries, but finally Victoire managed to pronounce the Parseltongue needed to access the chamber. The sink opened, and Victoire, Ethel, and Esther grinned at each other in excitement before jumping into the pipe and sliding down.

Victoire made note of the many other pipes branching off from the main one, resolving to explore every single one of them.

Once they got to the bottom, they lit their wands (Victoire had read a bit ahead in her Charms book to find the _Lumos_ spell). Then they followed the tunnel – Victoire was glad that neither Ethel nor Esther seemed to mind the skeletons of dead animals scattered around the ground – she had been worried that her new best friends would turn out to be squeamish.

They clambered through the cave-in Lockhart had caused, and paused for a while at the mostly-rotted bright green basilisk skin, because it was really cool.

But eventually they continued, and then finally, _finally_ , Victoire, Ethel, and Esther stood at the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets.

Victoire didn't stop to admire the intricate details on the emerald-eyed serpents in front of her– she'd have time for that later, and right now, she just wanted to actually get _into_ the Chamber.

She hissed the strangled words of Parseltongue she knew, and the snakes separated, the wall opened, and she stared into Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets.

As one, Victoire, Ethel, and Esther stepped forward and entered the Chamber. Victoire knew her mouth was hanging open, but she couldn't help it. It was magnificent.

There were pillars that reached so high Victoire couldn't see their tops. The snakes carved on the pillars were so realistic – and then there was the giant Basilisk skeleton under the statue of Salazar Slytherin.

The statue was huge – Victoire could only barely see Slytherin's face in the gloom of the Chamber. She walked past the Basilisk skeleton so she could climb on top of the statue's giant toes. She was vaguely aware of Ethel and Esther behind her, exploring around the pillars.

After much too short a time, Esther informed them that it was about time for the Halloween Feast to end – and they needed to get back before anyone noticed they were missing.

Reluctantly, Victoire joined her friends from where she had been exploring the bones of the Basilisk, and the three girls headed back through the tunnel.

"You'll teach us Parseltongue, right Victoire?" Ethel asked after they passed the cave-in. "Then the Chamber can be our secret meeting-place!"

Victoire nodded. "Of course!"

"We should probably clean this place up a bit before we do homework and such here, though," Esther said, removing some cobwebs from her blond hair. "We wouldn't want to hand in a cobwebby essay!"

They reached the pipe leading to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom and stopped.

"Er, how do we get out?" Esther asked.

Victoire shook her head in ignorance. How could she have overlooked this? She had learned how to get _into_ the Chamber, but had no ideas for getting _out_! She hissed a few words of Parseltongue, hoping that the pipe would turn into stairs or something, but nothing happened.

"We could try _Wingardium Leviosa_ ," Ethel suggested dubiously. They had had marginal success with the spell when they had learned it earlier that day, but Victoire wasn't sure any of them had mastered it to the point of levitating each other up the long pipe.

And sure enough, when Esther tried it, Victoire only got a few feet off the ground before Esther couldn't keep the spell going any longer.

Victoire's uncles and aunt had gotten out using a Phoenix. But there were no magical creatures that could help them this time. Or maybe . . . "Hogwarts House-Elf?" Victoire tried. "We need help?"

But no house-elf appeared. Instead, Victoire heard a loud whoop echoing down the pipe. Someone was coming!

Victoire, Ethel, and Esther stepped away from the mouth of the pipe so they wouldn't get knocked over by whoever was coming.

A bit later, after many more whoops, a firey-red-haired boy tumbled out of the pipe. He tried to stand up too fast, and tumbled over again.

"Teddy!" Victoire exclaimed as he struggled to his feet again. She was glad to see him.

Teddy grinned at her as his hair turned dark green. "I thought you might be down here. Did you think I wouldn't notice you missing from the Feast?"

Victoire made a face at him. She was no longer glad to see him.

"But now you're stuck, too!" Esther told Teddy worriedly.

"Oh, are you stuck?" Teddy asked, starting to smirk. "I really didn't take you for a damsel-in-distress type, Victoire."

"Shut up," Victoire snapped.

Teddy's smirk turned into a grin. "Nah, I know you're not a damsel in distress – well, at least you're not a _damsel_ . . ."

Victoire hit him, but Teddy just laughed. "Oh, don't be like that! There's nothing wrong with needing help – Aunt Ginny needed to be rescued from the Chamber of Secrets, and nobody would call _her_ a damsel in distress, right?"

Slightly pacified, Victoire agreed. "Right."

"You haven't rescued us, yet," Ethel interjected, crossing her arms.

"True," Teddy said, still grinning. Then he hollered up the pipe. "READY!"

The sound echoed up the pipe, and soon there were a few faint clunks, which echoed strangely through the pipe, followed by several excited whoops, and Teddy cast what he explained was a Cushioning Charm on the ground.

Soon, three broomsticks dropped out of the pipe, landing gently on the ground.

Victoire was so relieved that she hugged Teddy. _Brooms!_ They were saved!

The brooms were soon followed by Teddy's two best friends (besides Victoire, of course): Peter Jones and Gostir MacFusty.

Peter's mother was a cousin of Gostir's, and the two boys had inherited similar features. People who didn't know them had trouble telling them apart – especially when Teddy morphed himself into their black-haired, blue-eyed triplet – which he did _constantly_.

"Now that we've proved we can rescue you, damsels," Teddy said, smirking again, "Will you lead us to the famed Chamber of Secrets?"

Peter, who tended to be more polite than Teddy (which wasn't difficult), nodded. "We'd really like to see it."

So the group of six trekked back to the Chamber, and explored it some more.

But they didn't have long before curfew, so they had barely even _begun_ , Victoire felt, before they had to leave again. She already loved the Chamber - she knew she'd be coming back often.

And sure enough, over the next few months (and years), Victoire, usually joined by Teddy, Esther, Ethel, Peter, and Gostir, explored and cleaned the Chamber of Secrets, until it was as grand as it must have been when it was first built.

It was even better than Victoire had expected of a _giant secret chamber under the school_. But what made it really special to her was an event that occurred in the Chamber near the end of Victoire's fifth year:

Teddy kissed her.


End file.
